


Caught a dragonfly inside a jar

by TheDameintheRaininMaine



Series: Round and round, in the circle game [3]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gendry the student paramedic, Lingerie, Surprises, Valentine's Day, set in the round and round iverse, well fluff and a touch of potential angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 09:54:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29451891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDameintheRaininMaine/pseuds/TheDameintheRaininMaine
Summary: Arya decides to surprise Gendry for Valentine's day. It goes ever better than she could have expected.
Relationships: Arya Stark & Bella, Arya Stark/Gendry Waters
Series: Round and round, in the circle game [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2072487
Comments: 4
Kudos: 70





	Caught a dragonfly inside a jar

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of the round and roundaverse- but out of order. I'm still working on part 3 (set the summer after camp), but I really wanted to post this on Valentine's Day. This is set Arya's first year at university.

The bacon popped and splattered against Arya's shoulders. She curses, realizing she should have finished making dinner before she changed into Gendry’s surprise.

She would have probably realized this earlier, but she was still sort of nervous how he would react. 

Arya had never been a fan of Valentine’s Day, even when she was young and it meant cards and candy hearts. It was usually the sign of the high points of one of Sansa’s ridiculously over the top crushes, necessitating her derison. And as an adult, she never wanted to be one of those women who’s lovers walked on eggshells to make sure they did the right things. She was perfectly capable of buying her own chocolate and her own flowers. 

But Gendry had started doing two shifts a week at the station instead of just one, and he had been working so much that she just wanted to do something special for him.

Bella had been more than happy to help Arya out, when she had explained she wanted to surprise Gendry for Valentine’s Day. She had taken her to a nice lingerie store downtown, and only smiled in amusement when Arya had gone wide eyed. The land of extreme pushup bras, lace g-strings and body...things with so many straps Arya thought she would tie herself in knots trying to wear them had seemed so incredibly alien to her. Bella had suggested a decorative garter belt, and when Arya had looked overwhelmed at even the thought (what was even the point of it?). She had then smiled and tugged on Arya’s wrist, insisting suddenly that they were in the wrong department. 

The black nightie she’d selected was silk and held up by two tiny straps. It had a lace panel across her collar, and flared out below, falling barely to mid-thigh. Bella had nodded happily, saying that Gendry would love it, as he was clearly a leg man. 

“Oh god, Bella, he’s your half-brother, don’t say things like that!”

“Well it’s true! All I have to do is see is him watching you every time you wear shorts. I thought that’s why you did it so much.”

Which could be true. King’s Landing had had an unseasonable heat wave in late January, which was the reason why Arya was wearing shorts even that day. This was practically summer weather for the north.

She’s still a little unsure. She’s never been one to dress up, or try and dress sexy and parts of herself still feels like she much look like she’s wearing a Halloween costume. But, at least she was making him dinner like she wanted to.

Arya spooned the eggs and bacon onto the plate, and stuck in four pieces of toast. Class had run until nearly six, and Gendry got off at the station at seven. He’d been working seven to seven, on his apprenticeship ride alongs, since last summer, though now with two shifts a week instead of one, and one fewer day in the classroom. Some days he was so tired Arya wouldn’t hear from him until he texted her that he was leaving for his next shift. 

She glances around at the shitty little studio apartment. It didn’t even have a proper stove, just a hot plate, and when she’d come in, she’d tossed her bag onto Gendry’s futon even though there was a tiny card table. She had plans for the table after all. The bottle of wine she brought is hogging nearly half of his mini-fridge. Gendry had only been renting it because it was so close to the ambulance station that it made getting home after a twelve hour shift easy, but it still made her sad. The apartment she shared with Jeyne and Willow was much nicer, but they didn’t have plans tonight and would be home, much like every other time she’d thought to invite Gendry over and out of this cave.

She laid the plates on the table, and lit the candle she’d brought. Breakfast for dinner was always a good choice. After that, all she can do is sit at the table and wait. She’d shaved her legs that morning, even double checking to see if she missed spots. She patted on some of the sandalwood lotion Gendry had gotten her for Christmas. It was in the tiny apartment bathroom, along with her toothbrush and a couple of other things she’d kept for when she slept over.

She was just thinking that they really should discuss his living arrangements, when she heard the creak of the front door unlocking and jumps to attention.

Gendry enters the apartment and drops his bag just inside the door. His head hangs, and Arya’s heart skips a beat, wondering if it’s been a bad day, he has them now and then. She still remembers the dead look in his eye, cold and empty, last December when he’d finally broken down and told her about the case with the van that had hit a patch of ice and collided with a cement truck, killing everyone inside. Including an infant child who had been ejected, and he had been the one who had to pick up and carry to the ambulance, for them to take to the coroners. 

Dear Gods, she hopes it’s not another day like that, she thinks, flushing and feeling foolish all of a sudden.

She watches his face, shining with sweat, as she takes off his jacket and leave it on his bag. She’s beginning to question herself, when his head turns towards her and freezes. 

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” she tells him simply. 

He goes pale, and she feels her stomach sinking even deeper.

“Shit,” he starts, “I completely forgot, I-”

“Has it been that kind of day?” Arya asks, heart sinking in time with her stoamch.

Gendry’s reply is mostly babbles, so she kicks out the other chair from under the table and gestures. 

“Sit. Eat. You’ll feel better.”

Gendry follows her direction, sitting and cutting into his eggs. He begins to look less pale, especially as Arya stands and pours them both cups of water, the bottle of wine she’d brought forgotten. She curses whoever decided that ambulance workers needed to be on twelve hour shifts. When his skin begins to pink up, he begins to talk again. 

“It wasn’t an awful day, just endless. The first guy- I should have remembered what day it was because of this- tried to wake up his wife to surprise her with a rose stuck in his- well- the thorns of course wouldn’t let it come out-”

“Oh gods, never do that.”

“After that it was transfer after transfer, two fender benders, weak and dizzy seniors….it just kept on and on, I thought it would never end.”

His eyes fall, and he watches her face in the candlelight. 

“I’m sorry I forgot.”

Arya shakes her head. 

“It’s fine. You know I’m not the kind to except flowers or candy- unless I ask for them that is. I just wanted to do something special.”

She tugs on the hemline of her nightie. 

“I know you’ll be on twelves for most of your work unless you decide to do tech work or something. And until I know where I’ll work once I finish school, I won’t know my schedule either. We already missed Christmas up north because of that once-in-a-century snowstorm-”

They’d spend Christmas with Braavosi take out and TV. It had been nice, but it was not Winterfell.

“-and between me with fencing and yoga and everything, our schedules are always such a mess. I wanted to do something special on a special day before that risks becoming impossible.”

Gendry watches her with such near awe in his eyes, that she pushes away from the table and crawls onto his lap. He wraps his arms around her and pushes a bit of her hair out of her face. 

“I don’t know what I did to deserve you...but let me make it up to you. I’ll take you out tomorrow night. I know you have class, but all the restaurants will be empty then and we’ll have our pick.”

Arya grins, and nuzzles his neck. Sometimes she doesn’t know what she did to deserve him. 

His fingers find the fabric of her nightie. 

“Is this new?” he asks, “I’ve never seen it.”

Arya nods, and then stands, backs up and does a spin. Gendry makes a strangled noise and she chuckles. 

“Bella helped me pick it out,” she tells him, “I almost asked her if I could wear one of her costumes-” Gendry’s noises sound strangled in a completely different manner now. Everyone mostly politely avoided the subject that Bella worked as a stripper- and definitely avoided the topic that Gendry had first bumped into her while on a call in which another stripper had broken her anke when her stilleto got stuck in a floor vent, and they had only come to suspect their family connection because of an offhand comment by one of Gendry’s ride-along classmates. “But that seemed a little bit much.”

Gendry nods, and Arya can practically feel his mouth going dry at the thought. He stands, and backs her into the little counter that holds the hot plate and toaster. He holds her face in both hands, and whispers, 

“Happy Valentine’s Day Arya.”

He kisses her hard, and his hands run up and down her sides along the thin fabric of the nightie (she really does like it, she would admit, even though she’ll have to wash it in the sink), until his fingertips find the hemline. 

He pulls back, his pupils blown wide. 

“So,” he starts, pulling on the edge of the fabric, “You got anything on under this?”

Arya grins, impishly. She remembers explaining to Bella that her underwear drawer consisted almost entirely of sports bras and knickers she picked primarily because she liked the colour and they didn’t crawl up her arse. 

“I don’t own any knickers half as nice as this, so that’s a no.”

He actually growls at her words, and that sets her on fire a little bit inside. He pushes the fabric upwards, and his fingers follow, and Arya know she’s made a very good decision. 

By the time they make it to his futon, he doesn’t actually take her nightie off. He’s stripped himself completely bare, even of his socks, but her nightie remains pushed up around her chest as he spreads her open in front of him and shows his appreciation with wipe swipes of his tongue.

Not that she lets him do all the work. They make saint Valentine proud that night. She thinks the flowing silk fabric is especially nice feeling when she's got him on his back and it floats around her as she rides him until he loses his mind. 

Later that night, when they’re cuddled together, crammed almost comically onto his tiny futon, Arya laughs. 

“I think I would actually sleep in this if I wasn’t so worried about fire drills.”

Gendry holds her tighter. 

“Don’t think we have those here. Not sure this building even has fire alarms.”

Arya twists in his arms. 

“We really should look into getting another place,” she finally bursts out with. “I know you said you didn’t want to move back in with the Seaworths full time, but this place is a dump.”

Gendry’s eyes find hers. 

“We?”

Arya blushes a bit. 

“Sure. We. At the end of the school year at least.”

“Well, I’m not so sure,” Gendry continues, his tone casual, “I’ll have to call all your siblings, I’m not sure I’m going to want to have to actually live under the same roof as you-”

And so Arya ends the happiest Valentine’s Day she had ever had by walloping her boyfriend repeatedly with his own pillow.


End file.
